You've almost sold me on VectorLinux, as I'm looking for a lightweight distro that can revive older hardware.

As someone who is still very much a newbie, I'm wondering how it would suit someone more used to ubuntu. I've never tried a Slackware-based distro, because Slackware sounds really scary.

Firstly, I'm trying to re-invigorate an old AMD 475MHz, 56Mb, 5Gb hard drive Compaq laptop. Could Vector actually run in that sort of environment and still provide a GUI desktop with basic apps?

(What I'd need for the machine are browser, word-processor, spreadsheet, picture-viewer and even a few simple games.)

Secondly, would I be able to add new applications (not big ones, obviously) with a package manager rather than having to compile from source?

I know the hardware specs are pretty grim and I'm probably asking a lot, but is VectorLinux a viable option? DSL - of course - runs well on the machine but it's not particularly intuitive.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Sorry folks. I realise now - having posted earlier - that 56Mb is unrealistic for any GUI.

I'll see if I can upgrade to 128Mb and get back to the forum at a later date.

(Mind you, if anyone can tell me how to run VectorLinux in 56Mb I'll be more than happy to listen...but I'll not hold my breath.)

Deli Linux is Slackware based too.

For the setup you have, I would suggest Vector 5.1 Standard but with only 56MB it will run really slow. Even with 128 MB Ram it will be somewhat sluggish. However, if you really wanted the exercise you could tune the install so that it will run acceptably well on your hardware.

Hi,

Don't know for sure but I bet that IceWM would run in 56Mb. I am using IceWM now as Xfce always breaks for me after 2-3 months use.

And if you restricted yourself to the fluxbox window manager I suspect that could almost be described as speedy!

Even as a Vec-user, I wonder if Damn Small Linux might be a good pick for you.


Paul
UK

I've installed VL 5.9 (standard) on a 200mhz pentium mmx laptop with 64 mb of memory. XFCE is kind of slow but there is alot to be said for how well vector linux actually runs on this machine.
Blackbox works nicely but the menu's are setup wrong by default ;-(

The bad points, All but the most basic applications take awhile to start up. Make some tea while starting firefox :-).

xterms start relatively quickly.

Once firefox is started you can actually browse with it but it's not quick, it is usable though. Abiword works fine.

A cool thing. I downloaded the nxclient (remote desktop) package and installed it. With this I can connect to a graphical display on my home machine and actually have a fairly fast interaction w/ my home machine from anywhere!.

I think I had to opt for a low memory install when I put vector on this machine but I don't really remember.

See ya

Abiword is remarkable in this respect isn't it?
Have you tried Opera? I can't say from personal experience but it is claimed to be less resource-hungry.
I will try some mem tests & report back.

Paul

Okay folks, a crude memory test I did tonight.

Machine: Athlon XP1800 (1513MHz) on Abit NF7-M motherboard
RAM: 480Mb. Odd number - don't ask, I don't know :-)
OS: Vectorlinux Std 5.8

Task 1; Reboot, load IceWM & a terminal (Xfce terminal 0.2.6). Run free command

Task 2; Launch browser & load www.google.co.uk. Run free

Task 3; login to www.flickr.com account (just a sample page with pictures). Run free

After running this test with Firefox 2.0.0.12, the computer was rebooted and the test run with Opera 9.10

Results
-------
1.
IceWM + terminal: 443,352
IceWM + term + FF(google): 428,192
IceWM + term + FF(flickr): 419,728

2.
IceWM + terminal: 443,624
IceWM + term + Opera(google): 429,436
IceWM + term + Opera(flickr): 417,924

Hmm... no use at all, then. Opera woke up for *slightly* less than Firefox, but then seemed to catch up when called into action.

Also, to go back to the beginning of this thread, I was wrong: VL5.8 + IceWM can't quite stay under the 56Mb barrier. I will have to try fluxbox!!

Kind Regards,

Paul
UK

OK, here's one. Someone gave me a Toshiba 7020CT Portege. This is
a Pentium II 366MHz with 128mb ram. I put Vector Linux 5.1 SOHO
on it and so far the results are acceptable. Mostly I wish to
use this machine to process BOINC work units:

See http://boinc.berkeley.edu/

for details. Right now I'm using Xfce4 in preference to KDE
but look forward to switching to ICEwm which I remember fondly
from Vector Linux 5.0 SOHO. That said, my own experience is
that Slackware is way easier than it is made out to be.

hth,

The GNUinator

I'll maybe see if I can hunt down some cheap old memory and give some of the above suggestions a try.

Obviously, 56Mb isn't going to get me too far...